Due to the rise of search media students at universities have increasing asking questions on these websites, of course this may seem fine to most people and universities.

However coursework, reports, essay most require INDEPENDENT work, this has now been thrown out of the window. If you don't understand a question you would spend 30 mins 'attempting' to answer it and then just ask on group and someone will just give you the answer.

Also you get the students who drink the night before the coursework is due and just ask the for the answers on facebook... and guess what? People tell them!

Why is this acceptable? the idea behind doing independent work is to it yourself not to get people to do it for you!

TLDR Drinkers get full marks for doing absolutely no thinking what so ever.

AFAIK, asking someone with a better understanding of the question to explain it to you isn't cheating - it's only cheating if they give you the specific answers or help you write the thing, which I doubt anyone will do over Facebook and leave a trail.

Interestingly this is a real issue faced by universities. My own course has had a problem with (extremely) widespread collusion happening across the whole of the first and second year-groups. This prompted complaints by numerous students, had has been brought to the attention of the union and higher school meetings.

The solution isn't soon coming. There's going to be talks about altering some of the methods of assessment for some modules. But there's not much they can do with collusion on facebook other than to warn students that Turnitin can pick up instances of similarity with other students' work, and that this will be treated as plagiarism.

Moving on to how sites like TSR effect it, well, that's another issue entirely. Not one that I think can be fixed. I would say that it's more unusual to get a direct answer on here though, users are more inclined to point the asker in the right direction which I certainly think is more helpful.

Last edited by Fuzzpig; 24-03-2012 at 22:57.
Reason: Grammatical error

Not too long ago, someone on my course complained about this on facebook the day before a piece of coursework was due. There were some silly people who put extracts of their FINAL essays on facebook. However, asking someone to explain something or checking that what you have is fine is OK. People who just ask for all the answers may get the marks but they don't learn anything and the assignments on my course are related to the stuff we would have to do when we start working in our field, so it is their problem if they don't learn now.

(Original post by TheSownRose)
AFAIK, asking someone with a better understanding of the question to explain it to you isn't cheating - it's only cheating if they give you the specific answers or help you write the thing, which I doubt anyone will do over Facebook and leave a trail.

We have a Biomedical Society facebook group for our year and this has caused a bit of friction actually.

Most of us use it for open assignments to discuss questions and we often work together to come to the right conclusions, but then you get an idiot who hasn't been to any of the lectures or put any effort in at all, but has a few pals who he can get all the right answers from (I'm not talking essays, i'm talking online MCQ tests that you have to complete within a time limit once you open).

I'm probably coming across as a butthurt fool, but coursework will account for ~30% of our course in this second year and I will undoubtedly do a fair bit worse than quite a few people who have done no actual work but just 'leeched' off of others.

Someone actually posted this in the BioSoc group - The test accounted for 25% of a double module and he got 100% with no work, I did it 'properly' and got 89% - Some people objected but most people in the group actually stuck up for him. It's unfortunate.

Simply answering a question that requires 2-6000 words of the Queen's English is not possible over a social networking site, what you often find with questions/assignments like that is that they often require an argument too, which can only really be created from the evidence you find in your research.

The way I see it, asking your peers for help is exactly the same whether you do it in person in a Library, or on a Social Networking site like Facebook, except when you do it on the internet you can do it from the comfort of your own home. And even then, the best you can get is ideas to go on for your essay, not a direct answer. In fact doing it can be a useful learning tool for seeing areas you have missed or should look at.

Granted, if it were a maths or science question, then yeah, you could get a direct answer over facebook, but again, this could be done in a library in person, so there really is no way to stop it, unless of course you ban coursework all together and just have exams (and even here, students can still discuss beforehand what they think might come up, ideas/hints/tips etc)...

Why is social media something new? Before social media, namely a major site like Facebook, we had emails. Prior to this we had Microsoft Word and something called a printer. You use this to print off a copy and you can therefore hand a copy to a fellow.

You could also meet up with people and discuss work, share ideas and help each other. I'm 99.9% sure that people have been conversing with each other for a good couple of thousand years, at least.

Granted facebook made this easier, but we have had emails for a fair few years now, and stuff like IM isn't new either.

I see where you're coming from, OP. I work really hard for my coursework and it really pisses me off when some people who spend their nights getting high and drunk actually have good grades. But you will find people like that everywhere, I suppose you've got to live with it. Besides, like most people already stated, giving the answer that would lead then to the final coursework is just a portion of it. If they attain good grades is because they must do something at some point.

Someone actually posted this in the BioSoc group - The test accounted for 25% of a double module and he got 100% with no work, I did it 'properly' and got 89% - Some people objected but most people in the group actually stuck up for him. It's unfortunate.

I see where the OP is coming from too. You could have assessed coursework that's not essays for example - what if it's a list of maths questions? Someone could easily send you the answers. Even if it is an essay, someone could e-mail you their essay and then you could edit it. These kinds of things happen a LOT in schools, so why not university?

That said, no, I don't think it will DESTROY university education. The means to cheating in coursework existed before "social media", people had telephones/people could just meet up...

(Original post by Mr. Tizzy XII)
We have a Biomedical Society facebook group for our year and this has caused a bit of friction actually.

Most of us use it for open assignments to discuss questions and we often work together to come to the right conclusions, but then you get an idiot who hasn't been to any of the lectures or put any effort in at all, but has a few pals who he can get all the right answers from (I'm not talking essays, i'm talking online MCQ tests that you have to complete within a time limit once you open).

I'm probably coming across as a butthurt fool, but coursework will account for ~30% of our course in this second year and I will undoubtedly do a fair bit worse than quite a few people who have done no actual work but just 'leeched' off of others.

Someone actually posted this in the BioSoc group - The test accounted for 25% of a double module and he got 100% with no work, I did it 'properly' and got 89% - Some people objected but most people in the group actually stuck up for him. It's unfortunate.

/ENDRANT

We have BioMedSoc on facebook and this is exactly what happened to us! Someone asked people to give him answers for a stats test, a person complained but most people stood up for the leech. I looked at the profile picture and thought who is this, never seen him in my life, obviously does not go to lectures?!?! Some of the people who backed the guy up I suspect rely heavily on other people to help them get through the course.